Chocolate Skulls with Brains!

Ok so I found a VERY cute chocolate skull on Pinterst and I HAD TO MAKE IT.  I started with the most amazing product...it's literally called Amazing Mold Putty.
You simply mix the two different putties together and they can make a mold of anything you want. 
Luckily Halloween is my favorite so I had no short supply of skeleton heads.  I found the perfect size one and molded away.

After the mold came out perfect I made my chocolate skulls and then let them chill.  When hard I took them out and cut the tops of their heads off.  I dabbed a little melted chocolate and stuck on a PECAN half.  You can use Pecans OR Walnuts whatever you prefer. 
SO easy and SO cute!

I followed the same method for the LARGE skull. I molded a larger skeleton and filled the mold with chocolate. You can add an actual brain inside the large one which will be scene when you cut into it.

PALLET COUCH

MY FAVORITE PROJECT SO FAR....THE PALLET COUCH!!!

So I saw some pallet furniture on Pinterest and FELL IN LOVE!  I decided immediately I had to attempt it.  I called up my best friend, (her family owns a hardware store) and had 7 pallets sitting in my driveway in a matter of hours!  (BEST BEST FRIEND A GIRL COULD HAVE).  I tried the big box hardware stores in the neighborhood and they looked at me like I was crazy.  I would recommend calling your local Ace or other local hardware store to see what they do with their pallets. 

The kids love laying here playing with their play food.

Any who...I got to work.  I sanded down the fronts and then painted the 4 bottom pallets a DARK chocolate brown and did the top 2 pallets a teal/green color.  The bottom 4 only really need the fronts and sides painted, you wont see the back of the pallets and it's not fun painting these things!! I will add the exact colors as soon as I can find the names. 

After measuring out the pallets (36x48) I went on the torturous hunt for a cushion the same size.  THEY DON'T MAKE CUSHIONS THIS SIZE I DISCOVERED!!!

SO....I got the idea to use some old bed egg crate padding topped with 2 body pillows that each measure 20x50.  I then took the foam with pillows and laid them on a FLAT TWIN sheet.  It is just the right amount of fabric to cover and still have room to sew a flap with buttons.  I highly recommend NOT sewing the GIANT pillow case shut so you are able to wash it. 

I then used a third body pillow for the backing and got some outside pillows for more comfort. 

ALL TOGETHER here is the price breakdown:

paint-I had at home.
6 body pillows-KOHLS...on sale for 7 each...-42
outdoor pillows TARGET and COSTCO....around 25
2 flat sheets TARGET .........................around 20
1 large throw pillow on sale TARGET 10
body pillow covers on sale TARGET....10

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               Just around $110 TOTAL!!!!

THE BEST CUPCAKES EVER!

Ok so I have been baking for a good 10 years now.  I LOVE to bake.  I am constantly on the hunt for the best cupcake out there!

Recently I have discovered what to date is the BEST CUPCAKE I HAVE EVER HAD! 


HERE IS HOW ITS DONE!!!

Take ANY vanilla cake recipe or if need be use a vanilla cake recipe....

add 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Extract
add 2 Tablespoons of Lemon pudding powder

add 1 full cup of blueberries to batter and bake as directed.

COOL cupcakes completely...while they are cooling mix up the rest of the lemon pudding (minus 1 Tablespoon).
Core out the center of each cooled cupcake and fill with lemon pudding...put tops back on. 


FROSTING: while coring and filling cupcakes put mixing bowl in freezer to chill....

Mix 1/2 large container of heavy whipped cream with 2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar, 1 Tablespoon of Lemon pudding and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 teaspoon of lemon extract. 
Beat till light and fluffy....

Add whipped topping and then with left over topping add a little yellow food coloring...do a dot of yellow topping on top of the white whipped lemon cream.  Add an optional blueberry on top! 
SOOOO LIGHT AND REFRESHING!!!!!

CANDY VALENTINES LETTERS

Today I made the easiest, cutest Valentine's decoration ever!  Just picked up a white wood letter from Hobby Lobby and some glue gun sticks. 
Got some Valentine's candies and hot glued them right on.  I did a light coat of poly on after so the animals don't come a runnin to my front door!

Hot glued a nice pink ribbon on the back to hang....took about 10 minutes!

SUPER FAST BEACH WAVEY HAIR!!!

I have said before...I'm always busy!  I don't usually have time to sit and curl my whole head of hair!  For Christmas I got this crazy lookin "deep wave iron"  I wasn't sure what the heck it would do but I finally tried it and wow...so easy!
I sectioned my hair in 4 sections...parted down the middle and then lifted half up and kept half down.  I used the iron on the four sections and total time it took was about 3 minutes!  I got a full head of waves and no 80's crimping look either!  I would highly recommend this HOT TOOLS DEEP WAVE IRON for fast beach waves! 

Heres me on my third section...

All done...so quick.

Here is my hair all done...

Then I kinda shook my head out and got a messy look....

Trying to get a back and side view...check out the wave...isn't it so cool looking!

FRAMED CANVAS WITH PHOTO COLLAGE

Today I made amazingly easy photo collages. 
I started with some canvas that I had painted before...I painted the same color as my wall right onto the canvas over my previous design. 
Then I spray painted some old banged up frames I got at Hobby Lobby...each was on clearance for $4.00
I distressed the frames by sanding some of the white spray paint off.
I had photos printed at Walgreens with a studio border called Black Torn.

After nailing the frames to the canvas, you are ready to work on your pictures.  You can also use a canvas that fits into a frame but I like how it looks to do a frame a little smaller than the canvas.

The next step is to use spray adhesive to mount your pictures to black foam (Hobby Lobby). 

After the pictures are mounted do a coat of Mod Podge MATTE, I like the brand shown in the picture (Hobby Lobby).

Cut out all the pictures that are dried and stuck to the foam.  Arrange the pictures how you wish on the canvas.  I used GLASS tile to write on and clue to foam to add more than just pictures to it.  I also printed a big black E to add.  I used the Mod Podge to add the paper E.

To add the pictures and the tiles I used a hot glue gun and just stayed clear of the edges. 

HERE IS THE END RESULT:

ORGANIZING MY CLOSET!

I am fortunate enough to have a BIG walk in closet.  Of course no closet is ever big enough so I am always looking for ways to make organize my little retreat. 
I use to have my shoes thrown up on a wire shelve...I found myself forgetting I had those old pair of black heels I use to love...
SO, I decide to spend the dang $12.00 on 10 bins (at Target) and organize my shoes giving all of them a fair shot at getting out and about...
I didn't get larger bins for boots yet but I think I will do that next....
I took pics with my phone and sent straight to the printer.  I printed wallet size pics of each pair so NOW I will see all that I own. 

HALLOWEEN..it's my FAVORITE HOLIDAY!

Every year I get the same requests from my husband when it comes to our Halloween costumes. 

#1  No crazy make up

#2  No big wigs

#3 Nothing glued to the face

and #4  Nothing too uncomfortable!

With those things in mind I began my search.  I happen to stumble upon these amazing costumes on buycostumes.com

All the costume consists of is fabric that is a magazine cover, wrapped in pvc and then tied around you.  It's not the easiest to drink with but was so easy to wear and we got SO MANY compliments. 

NOT TO MENTION I only paid $20 for each!

The guy on my husband's magazine cover was SO tan, I had to put bronzer all over his face!  I guess that's his tough guy face he is making??!!

FRAMED SILHOUETTES

I LOVE these....simply have your child turn for a profile picture shot.  Print the picture to the size you want your silhouette to be.  Printing on card stock will make it easier to trace.  I then traced it onto black paper and framed with scrapbook paper behind it.  AND YES, my oldest son has a mo-hawk.  He loves that you can see it in this pic!

I LOVE TATTOOS!

Just wanted to share my tattoos with you....the top is my latest...I LOVE IT!

Then the middle is a mistake tattoo that I used to cover up a stupid little cartoon moon I got one stupid night in college.  Then tried to do matching crosses on my feet but the foot one hurt so bad I ended up only doing one.  And last is my little crazy boys names on my wrists!

FABRIC MATTED PICTURES

The cost of photo matting can be very high...I decided to get a yard of fabric and use that instead.  All you have to do is cut the fabric 1 inch larger than your frame on all sides and use a glue gun to glue the fabric to the back of the frame holding....

Here's what mine looked like once done...

AMAZING WALL DECALS

So when we moved into our house I was clueless what to do with all the empty walls.  I stumbled across a website with really cool wall decals.  THEN I saw on the website they did custom designs SERIOUSLY well priced!  I immediately ordered my first decal.  After getting it like 3 days later (SUPER FAST SHIPPING) I was hooked!
I ordered another decal and then another, and so forth. 
My husbands dad who is now confined to a wheel chair from MS, use to read him The Giving Tree every night.  In honor of him we had Mindy over at highstylewalldecals.com make us a LARGE Giving Tree decal that we hung in our 2 story entry.  All we did was send her a picture and the dimensions of our nook we wanted to put it in.  It came out perfect and he cried when he saw it...

THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST WEBSITE OUT THERE FOR WALL DECALS!!! 
AGAIN...highstylewalldecals.com 
MINDY IS AWESOME!
Here are the pics of the ones we did....

KIDS DIY BIRTHDAY PARTY

My son Mason wanted a Phineas and Ferb birthday party....if it was last summer it wouldn't have been hard to find TONS of decorations for it at the store...the problem was it was literally MONTHS after the show premiered which meant NO STORE BOUGHT DECORATIONS!!!

I came up with ways to make our own favors and decorations for a BACKYARD PHINEAS AND FERB BEACH PARTY...

For cut outs I simply used an old refrigerator box and painted them on and cut it all out.  I was shocked how easy it was to draw them and paint them...Took some time but was well worth it. 
We also painted and cut out a surf board and set up a cute photo-opp for kids to take pics with.

For party favors one of the things we did was wrap mini chocolate bars with Phineas and Ferb images I found online and printed out.  We also did the same thing for granola bars. 

The kids all LOVED the party!

5 SECOND CUTE WALL IDEA

Another lovely idea I saw on Pinterest...IKEA sells this white frame for $4.99.  Take off the back and put up on wall around thermostat....such a cute way to spruce it up....

PAINTED ON WALL PAPER LOOK

So my laundry room so super boring...I need a way to spice it up.  I LOVE the look of wallpaper but after spending countless hours taking it down on my old house, I swore I would NEVER put any up again.  I found a pattern with a printable stencil on Pintrest and gave it a try....
I LOVE my new wall and now LOVE my laundry room too. 

I THEN decided I loved the Laundry room so much that I decided to do my bedroom.  I wanted a very "barely there" look so I took the SAME paint color as my wall and added a little white to it.  I mixed and added slowly until I got the desired color.  I love that it's a very light pattern but still makes such a statement. 

PAINTING AND RE-INVENTING FURNITURE

So I bought new chairs for my breakfast area and then realized the chair legs have BROWN wood and I had a BLACK table....
I planned to buy a new table but couldn't seem to find one anywhere that I liked...SO, here's what I did. 
Step 1...Sand the table top down...I used 150 sandpaper.
Step 2...Use DARK brown HI-GLOSS paint and do a little section at a time...paint on a streak of paint and spread and wipe with paper towel.
Step 3....Do the whole table top till it looks like marble. 
Step 4...Apply a thin even layer of Poly, let dry. 
Step 5...Sand lightly with a 200 sandpaper...
Step 6...Apply another thin layer of Poly and then the top is done.
Step 7...I sanded a little on the edge lip to give a distressed look.


THEN I decided to tile the sides to match my new chairs...

Step 1....Get small tiles and measure out to make sure you will have no cutting (unless you know how to cut tile, which I don't).
Step 2...use tile adhesive to glue up tile...don't use too much and spread across the tile backing thinly.  You may have to wipe extra glue off the front of the tiles if you use too much.  Let DRY!
Step 3....I used already mixed grout...grout in between any spaces and clean fronts.. LET DRY AGAIN!Step 4...Wipe clean any dry grout that is on the front of the tiles.  I did NOT seal my tile grout because it is not being touched or getting wet. 

I distressed the bottom of the table as well...

Final table looks SO much better with my chairs!!  Mission accomplished, and all for under $20
Home Depot...tile sheets about $5.00-two sheets
Hi-Gloss paint (I had from previous projects)
Premixed Grout-$8.00 at Home Depot and Small can of Poly at home depot $5.00